SIPTU HAS claimed before the High Court that the Mr Binman group of waste collection companies had attempted to frustrate a five-month industrial dispute over wage cuts by transferring workers from one depot to another.
As a result of that action, Siptu claims it is entitled under law to place secondary pickets on Mr Binman’s administrative offices in Limerick and Tipperary.
Mr Binman and its subsidiaries, which are seeking an order preventing the secondary picketing, disputed the Siptu claims during an injunction hearing that opened before Ms Justice Mary Laffoy yesterday. The application arises out of picketing at Mr Binman’s administrative offices in St John’s Square, Limerick, and Main Street, Tipperary town.
In July, Mr Binman got injunctions preventing Siptu from blocking access to two subsidiaries, O’Meara’s in Dungarvan, Co Waterford, and Clearpoint in Carrick- on-Suir, Co Tipperary. The court said peaceful pickets could continue but could not interfere with the economic interests of the firm.
Earlier this month, the company also applied to the High Court to extend the injunction to cover the administrative premises, amid claims, disputed by Siptu, that customers were being intimidated by pickets.
Yesterday, Ms Justice Laffoy was told by Roddy Horan, for Mr Binman, that everything in the case was in contention, including Siptu’s claim that Mr Binman, which is based in Limerick, was inextricably linked with its subsidiaries, O’Meara’s and Clearpoint.
His client argued these were separate entities, and that a ballot and strike notice that had been served on one of them, O’Meara’s, only applied to it. Mr Horan also disputed Siptu’s claims that workers had been transferred from Limerick to O’Meara’s in Dungarvan to frustrate the industrial action.
The court was told secondary picketing (at a premises not directly connected with a strike) is permitted if the picketer has a reasonable belief that attempts are being made to frustrate a strike.
While it was admitted that mechanics had been transferred from Limerick to Dungarvan, this was done in the ordinary course of business, not to frustrate the strike, and ceased last August, Mr Horan said.
The hearing continues.